Mike Dodds makes pledge after one key positive emerges during Sunderland's draw with Bristol City

Mike Dodds praised Aji Alese for a ‘really good’ return to action at the Stadium of Light on Saturday as the defender looks to step up his injury recovery from the weeks ahead.

Dodds opted to leave Alese out of the squad when Blackburn Rovers visited Wearside on Monday, instead opting to give the defender a full game in the U21s during the week. That cleared the way for Alese to return to the squad against Bristol City and though the game ended as a frustrating 0-0 draw, the defender’s strong cameo was a key positive for the Black Cats moving forward.

“It was always my plan to give Aji some minutes.,” Dodds said.

“He played 90 minutes on Wednesday for the 21s which was important for him because he’s not played 90 minutes for a long time regardless of whether it’s senior football or U21s. He’s been training for us longer than you usually would want in terms of before they return to playing, but as I’ve said a few times there’s a duty of care to Aji. We have rushed him back in the past and I made a promise that I wouldn’t do that - I could have been selfish and pushed him but I didn’t want to do that.

“One thing I’ll say about Aji was that when he came on he was excellent, really assured and a proper Championship left back. You’ve got Aji and Dennis Cirkin who I think is a wonderful footballer at this level, so there’s loads of potential positives at this football club but for whatever reason this season we’ve had a lot of injuries and things that haven’t fallen our way. Hopefully as these guys get back the whole dynamics of the squad will look a lot brighter. He’s a welcome addition to the group.”

Cirkin has been sidelined since January with a hamstring injury but Dodds remains hopeful that the defender will return to action before the end of the campaign early next month.